John is joined by author and theologian Professor Nigel Biggar, for an insightful conversation focused on crucial ethical, historical, and philosophical questions. They discuss war and whether it can be justified, the history of the world’s greatest empires and slavery within those empires, the British empire’s unbalanced reputation, rights and wrongs of colonisation, academic dishonesty in universities and more. Nigel John Biggar CBE is Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, author, Anglican priest, and theologian. He also directs the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life at Oxford which aims to foster a conversation between Christian theology and other disciplines. In 2017, Biggar initiated the Oxford project “Ethics and Empire” which aimed to scrutinise a purely negative view of empires and argue that they were morally mixed. Historians and academics widely criticised the project for 'attempting to balance out the violence committed in the name of empire with its supposed benefits.' Recently, Nigel published What’s Wrong with Rights? arguing that society’s modern rights conversation reduces the importance of fostering civic virtues. #imperialism #colonisation #oxford -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Can war be justified? 1:57 Is Putin unplugged from reality? 5:54 Relative vs Absolute Morality 7:45 What's wrong with rights? 10:30 Personal vs societal virtue 18:51 The British Empire's reputation 21:37 Are Empires Unethical? 24:52 Slavery in Empires 34:23 The colonisation of Australia 41:54 Can colonisation be beneficial? 46:50 Academic dishonesty 49:40 Free thought in universities 51:55 The British Empire in WW2 53:50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conversations feature John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, interviewing the world's foremost thought leaders about today's pressing social, cultural and political issues. John believes proper, robust dialogue is necessary if we are to maintain our social strength and cohesion. As he puts it; "You cannot get good public policy out of a bad public debate." If you value this discussion and want to see more like it, make sure you subscribe to the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtnYSEGViOnb7k8ezUaWUww?sub_confirmation=1 And stay right up to date with all the conversations by subscribing to the newsletter here: https://johnanderson.net.au/contact/ Follow John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnAndersonAC Follow John on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnandersonac/ Support the channel: https://johnanderson.net.au/support/ Website: https://johnanderson.net.au/ Podcast: https://johnanderson.net.au/podcasts/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nigel Biggar https://twitter.com/nigelbiggar